Samurai Warriors 3/ Gameplay
Gameplay The Charge, Normal, and Special action types remain from Samurai Warriors 2 and are renamed Power Attack, Normal Attack and Special Skill respectively in English. C5s and C9s from the Xtreme Legends expansion also return. Musou moves still have the same slow motion effect and continues to allow players to act freely until the gauge is empty. The slowdown effect, however, is emphasized more. The previous character stories are replaced with a different story system, which is separated into three phases. It essentially follows events of the Kanto big three -which features daimyo such as Shingen, Ujiyasu and Kenshin, the three unifiers' actions for unification, and the Sekigahara Campaign. *'Spirit Gauge' - a gauge that builds up and allows players to cancel certain attacks in exchange for more powerful ones. The rate at which this occurs as well as the power behind the attack depends on the level of the gauge. Spirit cancels can be used to interrupt the player's combos. *'Ultimate Musou' - combines the powers of the Spirit Gauge and Musou together. Highly destructive and free for the user to control to their liking. Uses unique camera angles during this sequence. *Most battlefield items are now determined before the stages starts. Players can equip their characters from three sets and may use them in battle as they please. To gain more items, players may complete missions during each stage to unlock more. Healing items can still be found scattered in objects on the field, but enemies will not drop them anymore. *Like Dynasty Warriors 6, weapons are now categorized under Normal, Power and Speed types. The biggest contrast from its spiritual predecessor is that each character has a unique weapon. The main requirement to getting these weapons is to complete every assigned mission within a character's key stage in Story Mode under the highest difficulty setting. Unique weapons cannot be altered in any way, and they boast a higher attack base than a character's Normal weapon. *Similar to Dynasty Warriors 5, characters narrate information regarding battles during the pre-planning stage. Players can read it before marching into battle. *Certain stages allow players to interact with objects in the environment called devices. They can shoot from stationary cannons at Osaka Castle and can invade Odawara from the skies by gliding down from hawks. *The shop feature returns but is altered slightly. Gold has been replaced by a system of colored stones, which players collect as they finish missions and stages. These stones can be used to improve a character's weapon, armor, gauntlets and leggings. Improving a character's equipment increases their attributes, such as stats and their ability to build up the Spirit Gauge. More stones can be acquired by discarding unneeded gear. *Two player action remains relatively the same with the split screen gameplay. Each player can choose different items and characters from one another. They can also share devices in stages. Unlike Samurai Warriors: Katana, players can use either the Wii controllers or the GameCube controllers with this title.